bought a 1950 tula SKS with laminated stock

Great looking gun you got there. I like the look of the laminate stocks. Matching numbers or not who cares shoot it. Than buy another with all matching numbers as safe queen. They will dry up one day and no Russian SKS to be found
 
Personally, I rank the Russian SKS's as follows for desirability:

1) non-refurb, unissued
2) non-refurb, issued
3) refurb laminate
4) refurb hardwood.

Now, there was apparently a small number of un-dated star-marked 55/56 manufactured Tulas that were built new with Laminate stocks, but I've never had one and the rifle would need to be looked at as a whole to determine if refurb or not.

All things being equal, an Izhevsk will sell for a slight premium over the equivalent Tula.

My personal "go to" SKS is a non-franken-pinned non-refurb 1952 Tula that was issued but didn;t see rough service from what I can tell, still in about 90%+ condition.

Another thing to watch out for with the laminates is that they are often loose on the actions, meaning the action moves fore and aft in the stock when assembled. It should be as tight as possible for accurate performance.

With a laminate, I generally go to the range a few times and ram a couple hundred rounds through the gun to ensure the action has set back the laminations as much as it's going to. This is because when they machine them, the laminations tear at a different rate leaving an irregular surface at the rear receiver leg.

Once it's "shot in" and set back, there will be even more fore/aft movement. I then epoxy in a hardwood shim of the proper thickness behind the rear receiver leg to snug the action forward until the receiver contacts the metal stock bolt solidly. It should stay tight after that and your groups will shrink accordingly if you do your part :)

The hardwood stocks are less prone to this issue, but are less durable in other ways.
 
My go-to is a 1950 hardwood mild refurb. The stock was replaced (by me) with a much tighter fitting (and perfect colour match to handguard) hardwood stock. The magazine has a nice tasteful rivet (no barstock pinned to the follower pivot point, and possible feeding issues).

It is a very early variant with the hand etched Tula factory symbol and date, as well as sporting a square gas block. The barrel is non-chromed. The bayo is a lovely blued variant. All matching metal. She shoots much better than any other SKS I've ever owned... 3 inch 5-round groups, consistently, at 100 meters using only the humble iron sights. I have yet to fire ANY other semi-automatic, antique, old, new, in any calibre, that shoots better -- using iron sights. Yeah, I'm sure they're out there... with match-grade barrels and a ton of "accurizing" done to them, but not in stock trim, and not in this price range.

Cheap, accurate, and well built --> seems like an oxymoron in this modern age. :)
 
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The Kurgan said:
(no barstock pinned to the follower pivot point, and possible feeding issues).
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What type is this?

Of the recent SKS imports, I'm only aware of the following:

1) Piece of rod TIG welded to the follower arm (early imports). Desirable b/c it's invisible from the outside. Could be an issue over time if you load from a charger clip as the welding on the follower arm could temper the steel and make it easier to get bent.
2) Franken-pinned (ugly TIG weld visible on the mag bottom, s/n usually half obliterated), EP's on side of mag. Had a tendency to break off and leave an ugly hole in the mag after lots of recoil. Yuck. Was on second of the large recent imports.
3) Piece of round stock riveted into the bottom of the magazine cover. Works the same as a franken-pin, but a lot more durable. S/N stays intact, I've not heard of one tearing out under recoil yet. I believe this is the current import method.
4) Small diameter rod riveted into the bottom of the mag cover with a T-piece machined into the top of the rod. This is the current Chinese SKS method, and perhaps the best of them all since it adds almost no weight to the rifle and there is not enough inertia to worry about it tearing out under recoil momentum.

Not sure if there are any other types, but these are the ones I've seen. On a collator, I like Method 1. On a shooter, method 4 is likely best, followed by Method 3. My current favourite SKS is a method 3 riveted job, but due to the un-necessary mass of the blocking bar, I sometimes worry about the rivet tearing out over time. So far, it's been solid though.
 
I have 3 from 1950 - one early (slight refurb), one transitional piece (non refurbished) and a later one with a tiger striped stock (refurb'd).

That's only that one year... I'm seriously starting to think I have too many SKS's....
 
DJdeadlyDALEK said:
I have 3 from 1950 - one early (slight refurb), one transitional piece (non refurbished) and a later one with a tiger striped stock (refurb'd).

That's only that one year... I'm seriously starting to think I have too many SKS's....
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I'm actually down to just 2 at the moment. They are so cheap to buy recently, I actually tend to give them away as presents, no kidding. Currently have the above-menationed 1952 non-refurb and an unissued Factory 306 Chinese military pressed and pinned barrel variant.

In the last 2 years, I gave my brother an unissued 1951 and my father a really exceptional laminate 1952 refurb, gave a hunting buddy a nice unissued 1954 as well.

What I love about these is that they are the .30-30 of today and are becoming so numerous as to make the semi-auto rifle VERY dificult for the libs to ban when the Drama Teacher becomes PM one day.
 
The aforementioned method is what Westrifle employs, and to retailers they support. Sometimes it is fine, sometimes it causes feeding issues, as it creates a situation where the mag follower does not pivot freely enough. Of the two I own that have this mag limiting method, one is ok, the other is too stiff. Not easy to fix.

The most trouble-free method, from my experience, is the piece of round bar stock riveted to the mag bottom. No S/N obliteration and it is rock solid.
I also own an early 2008 IZH import, with the small round bar stock welded to the mag follower arm. No issues, as the mag follower is unaffected. No blemish on the outside of magazine makes this attractive to collectors.
 
DJdeadlyDALEK said:
I have 3 from 1950 - one early (slight refurb), one transitional piece (non refurbished) and a later one with a tiger striped stock (refurb'd).

That's only that one year... I'm seriously starting to think I have too many SKS's....
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I've capped my collection to 10 Russians. That's all the room I can spare. I focus on mint, non-refurbished pieces and a few exceptional mild refurbs. There are more Russian variants for sure, but I have other collector interests that absorb my time and space.
 
The Kurgan said:
The aforementioned method is what Westrifle employs, and to retailers they support. Sometimes it is fine, sometimes it causes feeding issues, as it creates a situation where the mag follower does not pivot freely enough. Of the two I own that have this mag limiting method, one is ok, the other is too stiff. Not easy to fix.

The most trouble-free method, from my experience, is the piece of round bar stock riveted to the mag bottom. No S/N obliteration and it is rock solid.
I also own an early 2008 IZH import, with the small round bar stock welded to the mag follower arm. No issues, as the mag follower is unaffected. No blemish on the outside of magazine makes this attractive to collectors.
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Can you post pics of the methods you are talking about? I don;t understand which one you are saying causes the follower to not move freely?
 
mag.jpg


Not mine, but they all look like this.

A rather unpleasant thread on the subject...
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...ernally-pinned-mag-q-s/page2?highlight=pinned

But if you do a search, there are number of threads of CGN owners complaining of stiff mag followers.
 
Oh, ok. I've not seen that type locally yet. Looks like it is invisible from the outside which is nice, but doesn't look so reliable to me. If I had one, I'd weld a peg to the arm and remove that pinned rod.
 
That is EXACTLY what I was planning to do with mine. The problem is that you have to carefully re-pin the follower (as the existing pin is too long), and that can be a bit tricky.
 
DJdeadlyDALEK said:
I have 3 from 1950 - one early (slight refurb), one transitional piece (non refurbished) and a later one with a tiger striped stock (refurb'd).

That's only that one year... I'm seriously starting to think I have too many SKS's....
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I am currently sitting at 17 Russian mostly Unrefurb and Unissued ones. 4 refurb 1949's and one refurb shooter and one Chinese shooter bubba'd.
 
ljones said:
I am currently sitting at 17 Russian mostly Unrefurb and Unissued ones. 4 refurb 1949's and one refurb shooter and one Chinese shooter bubba'd.
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That's pretty cool. With the exception of a non-refurb 1949, it's possible for the first time with these imports to actually assemble a full collection of unissued examples from every year and factory of production. When these imports dry up, and they eventually will as with all things, such a collection will look so much more impressive.
 
Claven2 said:
That's pretty cool. With the exception of a non-refurb 1949, it's possible for the first time with these imports to actually assemble a full collection of unissued examples from every year and factory of production. When these imports dry up, and they eventually will as with all things, such a collection will look so much more impressive.
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Yeah I just "need" a '53 Izzy unrefurb/unissued, and a D and K Letter guns to round it out...
 
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